Hands off from City Plaza and all other Refugee Squats!
At June 7th, 2017 the news came out that a court ordered the eviction of City Plaza Refugee Accommodation and two other refugee squats in Athens. Projects like City Plaza succeed in where the Greek government and other EU member states fail; a self-determined life, a life with dignity for those who traveled to a putative Europe under extreme hard conditions. A life where it doesn’t matter which papers people have but instead a life where people can live together in a self-organised way.
Since the former City Plaza hotel was squatted more than a year ago, after the building was empty for several years, more than 1500 people lived in the building. 400 at any one time. Among them where many refugees and supporters from many countries. While EU member states closed their borders, sharpened their asylum laws, detaining and deporting more and more refugees, people in Athens have buildup self-organised projects like City Plaza together with refugees.
In the past year repression against refugees and supporters has increased with evictions, arrests and police violence in various EU member states. Some of the squats where refugees lived in a self-organised way were evicted, for instance in Thessaloniki, Athens and Belgrade. Again and again there are reports from police violence against refugees in France, Croatia, Hungary and other European countries. Since the EU/Turkey deal refugees are being detained at the Greek islands and deported back to Turkey. But also in Germany more and more refugees are being detained and deported.
The resistance against the policies of EU member states against people who are seeking refuge is growing. In Nürnberg (Germany) students resisted against the deportation of a fellow student to the war zone Afghanistan last month. In Athens people are resisting the inhuman treatment and provision in state run camps by building up their own structures where people can live their lifes in dignity and self-determined in self-organised spaces like for instance City Plaza. For us this is all part of the same struggle. A struggle against the inhuman refugee policies of the EU member states.
For this reason we call for solidarity actions to preserve City Plaza in Athens and actions against the inhuman refugee policies of the EU member states.
Hands off from City Plaza and all other refugee squats!
Stop Deportations!
No Borders!
Equal rights for all!
No Borders, Wuppertal (Germany) June 2017
https://enoughisenough14.org/2017/06/07/hands-off-from-cityplaza-and-all-other-refugee-squats/
